While living in his parents' basement in Gates, David Schickler penned the New York Times 2001 bestseller Kissing in Manhattan.

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A handful of men are brawling in a creek at the bottom of a wooded North Carolina ravine. It's cold; everyone's wet. At one point they stop fighting and one of the men spots the guy who's responsible for their predicament.

It's David Schickler, wearing the new Timberline boots that he bought for himself in celebration of this event, standing relatively dry and warm among the crowd of 70 or so production people shooting this first scene for a new Cinemax television series,Banshee.